We left Maine and started heading South. Our first stop was in Hampton Falls, NH where we stayed at the Wakeda Campground. To our surprise, we ended up in the sight right next to TraciAnn and Tony. We met them at a campground in Kentucky and have stayed in contact, but didn’t know they were going to be there. We were so happy to see them and get a chance to spend some time together. The campground was decent and some sights were plenty big enough for us. They also had a nice pickleball court, so we were able to get in some games while we were there. We took a day and drove up the coast all the way into Maine. We sure miss the smell, sounds, and views of the ocean. Another day we took a drive down to Salem, MA where we took a walking tour of the town. The visitors center provided us with a map and all we had to do was follow the yellow stripe along the sidewalk to see everything. It sure made finding our way around the town easy. We did take in a skit that recreated one of the witch trials and also had a tour of their recreated jail. It was interesting learning about how all that unfolded and how poorly they treated people at that time. We then took the truck down to Brenda and Steve’s house in Belchertown, MA for a celebration of life for Kim’s Uncle Carl. We were so glad that the timing worked out and we were able to attend. It was nice to learn so much more about Uncle Carls life and see family and friends. The highlight of our time in New Hampshire was seeing Patti, Kim’s childhood friend. It was great for Kim and Patti to get together, catch up and talk about all the fun they used to have together. It was also great spending some time with her husband Bob and a couple of their kids and grandkids.

Next, we were off to Foxborough, MA, where we stayed at Normandy Farms RV Park. This was a very nice park with lots of amenities, some farm animals, and a couple of pickleball courts. However, the first site they wanted us in had some low hanging tree branches that we could not avoid, so fortunately they had another site we got into just fine. They had an Octoberfest while we were there, where they had 5 different breweries serving beer and some food trucks. From there we drove down to Newport, RI, where we explored some of the mansions along the coast. We did take a tour of the The Breakers mansion which was built by the Vanderbilt family in the 1890’s. Wow, what an amazing house! It is incredible what they could do with the few tools they had at the time. The craftsmanship was incredible! We also found the Newport Elks Lodge and enjoyed chatting with some of the locals there. We met Kim’s cousin Brenda and her husband Steve for dinner in Cranston, RI and the food was delicious. Then we took a motorcycle ride out to Cape Cod. We had perfect weather and really enjoyed getting out on the motorcycle. We made multiple stops along the way to enjoy the views and the highlight was finding the John F. Kennedy memorial. Then we jumped on the commuter train, which was right down the road from the RV park and headed for Boston. We did some exploring on our own, had lunch at Cheers, and then took a 2 1/2 hour walking history tour of Boston. Wow! This was an amazing tour. It started in Boston Common and ended at Bunker Hill. Along the way we saw the Granary Burying Ground, Benjamin Franklin statue, Boston Massacre site, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere house and statue, and the Old North Church. We learned a lot! We then had a fabulous dinner at No. 9 Park and stayed the night at the Omni Parker House. The next morning, we had a great breakfast at Cafe Bonjour where we found our granddaughters name on all the server’s shirts. 🙂 We did some more exploring, enjoyed an authentic cannoli, then it was back on the commuter train. We had a great time in Boston and really enjoyed the city. This is another place that has made our short list of places we want to come back and explore some more.

Next, we were off to the KOA in Westhampton, MA, which just happened to be right down the road from Kim’s high school. The first full day there, we spent with Charlene and Dave. Charlene and Kim have been friends since high school and were roommates before Kim moved to Washington. We had a great breakfast in the RV, cooked by the fabulous resident chef, David T. Then we headed to Williamsburg, where we stopped at the cemetery on Village Hill to see Kim’s relative’s graves and turns out that some of Charlene’s family is in the same area of the cemetery. Afterward, we went to Char and Dave’s house to see their new deck. They sure created a great outdoor space. Then we all enjoyed dinner together back at the RV and spent the evening sitting around the campfire chatting. It was great to see Charlene and Dave and we really appreciated that they took a day off from work to hang out with us. We also had Brenda (Kim’s cousin) and Steve over for dinner at the RV. David made his famous smoked ribs and we all enjoyed an evening together catching up. If you have not had David’s ribs, you are missing out. We did some more exploring around Kim’s childhood stomping ground, visited with her old neighbors the Pitoniaks (Thanks so much Rich and Mary for the cutting board and coasters), did some tasting at a couple local breweries, and even found some dinosaur footprints. We also got to meet up with Kim’s childhood friend/neighbor, Jim Ouimette, one afternoon at Paisano’s. On our way out of town, we decided to drive through Kim’s old neighborhood with the RV. As we made the turn into the neighborhood, Kim saw Francine Poplawski out in her front yard raking acorns and yelled out the window to her. Then we parked right in front of the Pitoniak’s house and gave a tour of the RV to the Fallon’s, Pitoniak’s and Francine. Kim was so glad that she got to see everyone! We even got lunch out of the deal 🙂 Rich and Mary treated us to a pizza from Paisano’s. We are so glad we took the time to drive the RV there. Although we had a little trouble getting out of there because of a low hanging cable TV line.

Next, we were off to East Lyme, CT. where we stayed at Aces High RV Park. We were only there a couple of days, so we only got in one trip to the town of Mystic, CT. We walked along the Niantic Bay Boardwalk and then explored the town of Mystic. We really enjoyed all the shops and had a good dinner at the local Irish Pub. Didn’t do much more there, but we got a pin in the map for Connecticut.

Next was Elizabethtown, PA, where we stayed at the KOA. This one was a little tricky getting to and then the driveways into and out of the park were really tight, but our sight was plenty big enough. A couple miles down the road was the Northwest Lancaster River Trail, which goes right along the Susquehanna River. We loaded the e-bikes in the Smart car and took a 14-mile ride along the river. It was a beautiful paved trail along the river. The next day, we headed to Gettysburg. We toured the museum at the visitor center which included a short movie about the battle and the cyclorama, which was absolutely awesome! (you should look this up, we didn’t know what it was until we went). After that we went on a self-guided driving tour of all the battle fields. They had an app that narrated all the different locations as you drove around. We were really impressed with all the memorial monuments throughout the area and how well done everything was. This was one of the better museums/tours we have visited. Our next adventure took us to the Hershey Story Museum. It was very well done and we learned so much about Mr. Hershey and how well he treated his employees. Then we had to do a tasting of chocolate… believe it or not, we taste more than just beer and wine. David was the only one that left with some chocolate from the gift shop. Kim had some serious willpower. Our next highlight in this area was a tour of an Amish house and farm. We learned so much about the history of the Amish and how they live. We would highly recommend this to anyone that visits Lancanster, PA. We did manage to fit in a couple of the local wineries and breweries. This was a really neat area with lots of history and things to do.

And our final stop for this blog post was in Moneta, VA, where we stayed at Sweet Water RV Park. It is a pretty nice park, but the sights are not very level and the pickleball court is not really a court, just a concrete pad with a portable net (no lines and no fences). We stopped in this area to visit some of Kim’s cousins and finally our timing worked out. We got together with her cousin Cheyrl and her husband Bill and went to nice restaurant in an old train station for Cheyrl’s birthday. The next day, they were having a retirement party for Kim’s cousin Carl. She has not seen Carl in almost 40 years and surprised him by crashing his party. It was great party, and we got a chance to catch up with lots of Kim’s family. The following day Cheyrl, Bill, Carl, and Patty (Carl’s wife) all came to the RV for the tour. Then they took us for a drive to see the Blue Ridge Parkway. Wow!!! The views and foliage were spectacular! We stopped for a nice lunch at Chateau Morrisette and then did a wine tasting afterward. Cheyrl and Bill also took us to Mabry Mill, which was very cool. Kim has really enjoyed seeing lots of her friends and family these past couple of months. We both spent our adulthood living away from our families, so it is always great to see them. We spent the rest of our time in Virginia writing our blog, getting our Flu shots, doing a little maintenance on the RV and visiting another winery.

We are headed to North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia next and then continuing down South to spend the winter in Florida. These past couple of months have been very busy. We have only been staying places for a about a week. We have been going nonstop trying to do and see everything. Our lesson learned is that we need to stay at least a couple weeks at each stop, if we can.

And of course, weird things along our travels….lots of manufactured homes going down the freeway in Virginia (they are difficult to get around), we picked up a tire tread in MA that was wrapped around our front RV jack and we dragged it for 50 miles, a creepy pumpkin throwing machine going down the road and our RV park in PA was very close to 3 mile island. Also, if you are wondering about a couple of the pictures of Kim’s friends and family, we forgot to take pictures when we were with them, so we stole some from Facebook. Sorry!